Traditions
by bloodyshadow1
Summary: Love is rarely easy, even when you're the avatar and a billionaire engineer. Marriage is not much easier and they haven't even gotten to that point yet. Asami goes on a hunt to prove herself to Korra's father while Korra remains home to worry about her. hopefully better than it sounds, please read and review. [Korrasami]


Korra and Avatar are not mine, disappointing, but hey, the creators do it right. This is proven by that awesome and surprising ending for the series. I love Korrasami and was so happy about the finale that I wrote this out of sheer joy. Just be warned, it is semi-crackish semi-head canon and not really meant to be taken seriously, I hope you enjoy. 

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><p>"Settle down Korra," Senna called to her daughter without taking her eyes off of her needlework, "or you're gonna have to use your earthbending to fix the path you've made with your pacing young lady."<p>

The young avatar did stop, but she still fidgeted until she couldn't take it anymore and resumed her pacing, "how can I settle down mom? My two best friends and my girlfriend are out there in the cold hunting dangerous wild animals while I'm stuck here and they are all I can think about. They've been gone for the week they have too and should be back by now, what if something happened to them."

"Fiancée sweetie," Senna corrected, "Asami isn't you're girlfriend anymore she's your fiancée."

"I know mom, but it's weird to call her anything but my girlfriend, this is all happening so fast," Korra said exasperated. But she still looked at the necklace wrapped around her wrist, even if she couldn't wear it around her neck yet, she still loved to look at it. Whenever Asami wasn't around and Korra felt alone all she had to do was play with it for a little while and she felt better right away. It was beautiful, maybe she was a bit biased since it was hers now, but it was easily the most beautiful betrothal necklace that she had ever seen.

The stone was blue jade like most betrothal necklaces, but it was slightly bigger than the average necklace and the carving was unique to their relationship. Asami had broken the stone up into five sections, each of the four elements were in a ring on the outside with half a gear and water drop merged together. It would have taken even the best water benders in the weeks to make such intricate carvings on such a small stone, yet her miracle engineer was able to work wonders alone with her saws and drills to manage it alone.

"Technically Asami isn't Korra's fiancée just yet," her father Tonraq said from his spot at the table. Like his wife and Katara the elder, he was doing busy work, sharpening spears and arrows, even though as a waterbender he had little use for them outside of hunting. "Not until she comes back from the hunt to prove her worth and that she can take care of my daughter."

"You be quiet old man," Korra said. Snarling she wasn't really mad at her father since she knew he was only having his fun until he 'lost' his daughter, but she couldn't help but see this whole thing as his fault. "Chief or not it's a stupid tradition that most families don't even use anymore. Spirits, I never once thought I'd wish I was born in the Northern Water Tribe, but for once I do. Up there all you have to do is give the girl you love a necklace and get the dad's approval in non-barbaric means to get her to marry you."

"Come on Korra," her father said trying to get her to lighten up, "if the situation was turned around and you had to hunt to prove your worth to Asami you would have jumped at the chance to hunt the biggest game you could find to do so."

"I was born her," Korra yelled trying to get the nerves out, "I lived here most of my life. I'm used to the cold and I've been hunting since I was eight. Asami is amazing, and strong, and a great fighter, and smart, and talented, not to mention beautiful with gorgeous eyes…" Korra trailed off as she lost herself a bit remembering her impossibly fantastic girlfriend. Shaking her head she cleared those thoughts away, "but she's been a city girl her whole life, she may be the socialite queen and economic empress of the concrete jungle, but she's hardly fit to go hunting in the frozen tundra."

"Korra, it's summer time, the South Pole is the warmest it's going to be all year," Tonraq said trying to calm her down again, "and I've taught Asami the basics of hunting, she's a smart girl, she picked it up right away. Besides, you know there's no real big game around here this time of the year, there's nothing out there more dangerous than an ice hare."

"Oh yeah, what if they run into Ichime," Korra said letting out a shiver at the snow panther leopard's name. Ichime had attacked her when she escaped the White Lotus compound for the first time when she was seven. The hulking one-eyed cat covered in scars had haunted her nightmares until she became strong enough to pretend dreams didn't bother her.

"Korra I doubt that Ichime is still even alive after all these years," Katara said but she was unsure, she had been the one to rescue the young avatar from the beast. Her life with Aang had made her hesitant to kill animals, especially when she wasn't hunting, but that beast was evil, she could tell. She wished she had finished it off all those years ago, but protecting Korra came first so she didn't have the chance. The beast had had the sense that if it came close to the human settlement again it would die, but that didn't stop stories from hunters claiming to be attacked by a giant snow panther leopard is one eye from spreading.

"Well what if he is, he attacked me during the summer, he could do the same to Asami, and Mako and Bolin," she added as an afterthought. It wasn't that she didn't care about her best friends or anything, but they were benders and weren't bound by the rules of the traditional hunt like Asami was. The only thing she was allowed to bring with her aside from food was a knife and a spear, two weapons she was unfamiliar with. Korra told herself that if Asami had her electric glove with her she wouldn't be as worried, but she knew it wasn't true.

"Come sit with us Korra," Katara said as she mended a shirt like Senna, "if you keep your hands busy perhaps there will be less time for your mind to drift to horrible things." Not wanting to argue with her mentor and the wife of her past self, Korra sat down at the table and picked up a needle. She was half-decent at mending clothes, but it was by far her favorite thing to do, it had always seemed too froo-froo and girly to her when they tried to teach her as a girl. Not that she ever told Katara or her mother that, they were the strongest women she knew and she knew it would only end bad for her if she dismissed what they did as simple woman's work.

After missing the needle with the thread for the twelfth time she threw them down in frustration, "dammit I knew this would happen. Why didn't I just work up the courage to propose to her instead of making her wait to propose to me? If I did than there would be no point in this stupid hunt that my dumb dad is making her do," Korra grumbled.

Tonraq looked as if he wanted to take offense to that, but he decided not to bring it up now while his very powerful daughter was fuming. Sighing once more Korra picked the needle up and expanded the hole with her metalbending, once the thread got to where she wanted it to be she closed it back up good as new and started to help with the sewing.

"I understand what you're going through Korra," Katara said as she continued her needlework, "I was a nervous wreck when Aang had to go out hunting when he asked my father if he could marry me."

"Chief Hakoda made Aang go hunting when he asked to marry you," Korra asked wide eyed, "you never told me that story."

"Well I tried a few times," Katara corrected, "but if I recall you always told me that you didn't want to hear boring gooey love stories and instead wanted to hear about the battles I fought in."

"Oh," Korra said embarrassed, "well I would love to hear it now that I've matured and grown up a bit."

"That's debatable," Senna said teasing her daughter.

"Oh alright, I suppose I do love that story," Katara said sighing at remembering that day it had been one of the happiest days of her life. "Well Aang asked me to marry him when I was 17, he was 15 at the time and nervous, he could barely get the words out when he started. But when he did he was so clear with how he loved me and asked me to marry him, I could barely see through the tears though so I didn't judge. After that we flew to the South Pole so he could ask my father for his blessing, he was a bit upset that Aang didn't ask him first for his daughters hand in marriage, but got over it quickly. He liked Aang, everyone did, and we had been together for years before that so he saw it coming. Still, he made my husband to be go on a hunt much like your father is making Asami do for you," Korra shot her father a glare who had the decency to look sheepish.

"How did Aang go hunting," Korra asked, her past self might have been many impossible things but he was also a well-known vegetarian and hadn't even taken the life of Ozai when he had full rights to. She couldn't see him hunting and killing an innocent animal just to prove himself to his girlfriend's father.

"Don't worry, I'll get to that, but let's not jump ahead in the story. So that night Aang went out into the wild with Zuko and my brother to go hunting as tradition allowed and kissed me, he didn't say goodbye, just that he would be back in a week," Katara sighed remembering how that boy could make all her fears go away with just a kiss. "I'm glad Sokka went with them looking back, my brother might act like an idiot sometimes, but he is far from it, not to mention he was a capable hunter, something that neither the avatar or the firelord could claim to be."

"I remember that week as one of the worst of my life, only topped by the time after my mother had died and waiting for Aang to wake up after we lost Ba Sing Se," Katara said wiping a tear away as she remembered how she had almost lost the love of her life and best friend all the way back then. "I spent most of my days helping with the reconstruction, but when the nights came and there was less things to take my mind off of Aang being out there I worried. I was not someone you wanted to be around during that time, a few idiots tried to use this time to try and court the chief's daughter despite me being uninterested and in a relationship. I froze them and left them outside all night so they got the point, after that, but I'll admit I was downright unpleasant to be around. By the last night I was threatening my father, I told him that if there was as much as a scratch on Aang's head I would freeze him in an iceberg and see how he likes it," she continued her story with a smile on her face as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Tonraq looked at his daughter out of the corner of his eye and tried to pretend that Korra's interest in that part of the story was simply out of wanting to hear about the last avatar's love story and not potential consequences for what would happen to him if something went wrong. "Well, the last day rolled around, much like today," Katara said continuing her story, "and my nerves reached their limits and Suki, Mai, and Toph had to hold me to stop me from running out into the wilderness to find the boy I loved," she giggled as if to dismiss her actions as just a girlish act from her youth. "I broke a few of Suki's fingers, gave Mai a black eye, and knocked on of Toph's teeth out before they managed to settle me down. The three of them understood of course, they had seen the stress I was under and understood that I did it by accident, Toph especially thought it was all in good fun, but I apologized a thousand times to each of them all the same. I did settle down, and by then the boys returned from their hunt, but like in all things Aang managed to find a different way to complete his task."

"Tradition stated that he had to go on a weeklong hunt and bring something back to present to the father of his betrothed to prove his skill and ability to take care of the man's daughter. Not that Aang had to prove anything, he had ended a hundred year long war and brought the four nations together. You should have seen the faces of my father and the men in the village when Aang, Zuko, and Sokka came through the gate riding the biggest polar bear dog you've ever seen. This was before polar bear dogs were domesticated mind you, so what Aang did was thought to be impossible, but he did it all the same. Like I said, everybody liked Aang, especially animals. He presented Lopsy to my father, it took him a bit since I was wrapped around him and wouldn't let go, but he managed it impossible as it was. He said that he brought back the fur, bones, teeth, and more as a gift to my father who only stared at the huge beast for a few minutes before accepting Aang's offer and gave him his blessing," Katara said laughing. "Lopsy was actually Naga's grandmother now that I think about it," she said bending down to give the tamed polar bear dog a scratch behind the ear.

"So let me tell you I know what you're feeling Korra, but sometimes good things can happen even from something like a ridiculous task like this," Katara said sagely to her former apprentice.

"I'll try to keep that in mind Master Katara," Korra said sincerely, she would try, but that didn't mean she would succeed. She didn't want a pelt or something for her father, she just wanted Asami safe and in her arms again and needlework wasn't taking her mind off of things.

Luckily it was at that moment Bolin and Mako came stumbling into her parents hut, and stumbling wasn't a hyperbole. Bolin was carrying most of his brother's weight as gently as he could, but they both looked bad, "medic, can we get a medic or a healer over here or something," the earthbender called exhaustedly.

The four waterbenders immediately dropped what they were doing to help the brothers, "water Senna," Katara called as Tonraq took Mako from Bolin and brought the firebender over to one of the couches while Korra helped the earthbender to the other. Both of the bending brothers were in bad shape though Mako was worse, Korra had broken enough arms to know that Mako's was broken, not to mention they were both scratched up again. Once her mother brought over bowls of water as big as she could muster, Korra moved to help Bolin while her master took on Mako.

"Bolin," Korra said trying to be sensitive to the boy's pain but they were worried about Asami, "what happened?"

"Well we were on that hunting trip from hell, you know the three city kids who rarely go outside places with concrete," Bolin complained. "We got attacked by this giant snow cat yesterday when we stopped and made camp for the night," he said clutching his head.

"He, it, whatever jumped over a ridge and got his teeth around my arm before I could even blink," Mako said sounding as tired as his brother. "He had one dead eye with a cut through it, but the other one just glared at me enough for ten eyes," he shivered.

"I would say he did, this arm is definitely broken Mako," Katara said examining him with her years of experience. "But I must say you're quite lucky that the bite wasn't deeper or it could have ruined your arm for good."

"Thank you," Mako said respectfully, he may have been injured and tired, but he knew better than act condescending to one of the most powerful and famous waterbenders in the world. "It's always gotta be this arm doesn't it," he asked rhetorically, noting that it was the same arm he broke during Kuvira's attack on Republic City two years ago. "It's lucky Bolin and Asami were there otherwise I'd be a goner."

"Yeah well anyone would have gotten a giant cat off of their brother, maybe not with my style or grace, but anyone would have done it," Bolin replied in his normal manner.

While mending Bolin's injuries Korra was only half listening, the second they said snow cat her body went practically ridged. It was only her muscle memory that kept her patching Bolin up after that. She could only imagine the giant demon one eyed snow panther leopard tearing her poor sweet delicate Asami apart. "W-where is Asami," Korra managed to finally croak out to open the floodgates, "is she hurt out there, is she in danger still, did Ichime get her," she asked that last part with a whisper not wanting to hear the answer.

"What's an Ichime," Bolin asked and Korra was about to strangle him.

"Asami is fine Korra," Mako said coming to his brother's rescue. "She actually saved our lives out there," he said with a note of respect in his voice. "The cat thing had already gotten one of my arms and managed to claw me up pretty good before Bo could get it off of me."

"Yeah I launched a few rocks with pinpoint accuracy, I would have shown that stupid cat what Nuktuk would do and made him into a coat," Bolin bragged. But then his face sagged a bit, "you know if we were in Republic City, or the Earth Kingdom, or even where the port was, you know, somewhere with some earth or rocks that I could use. The few rocks I carried with me worked for a while, but the South Pole is no place for an earthbender and it was just too fast. But let me tell you, this cat thing was scary, I lavabended at it and it barely phased the thing."

"Once Bolin ran out of stones I thought we were goners but then Asami came in like a rocket and tackled the thing," Mako said getting into the story. "You should have seen it Korra, she saved both of our lives, she was like a ball of fury and monstrous strength," he said unable to completely describe it. "The cat got its head around and managed to throw her off but Asami kept coming, she was relentless, they must have thrashed around for a good fifteen minutes-."

"But it felt like hours," Bolin said interrupting his brother, "I mean, we would have helped, but they were just moving so fast that I was worried I would hit Asami if I tried anything."

"Enough," Korra yelled not wanting to hear more of a story of how her girlfriend fought the beast that haunted her nightmares as a kid. All she wanted was Asami in the hut and in her arms. "If she's fine than where is Asami now,"

With his eyes as big as they could with fear Bolin started to answer the furious avatar's question, "she was right behind us, we offered to help her carry the thing, but she said she wanted to carry it herself and since I was already helping Mako," he trailed off thinking he had already said enough.

Luckily the door was kicked open after he finished talking and Asami strode through the door with a huff. The normally prim and proper business woman did not look like her normal self, she wasn't wearing any makeup for one and her hair was a mess from sleeping outside for a week. Her clothes were even worse since they were torn up badly in several places making her outfit half of her normal winter clothes. And Korra could see bandages underneath the exposed areas along with the shallow cuts on her face. Beside her was the recently killed body of Ichime, the one-eyed snow panther leopard. It was strange to see the girl of her dreams standing beside the dead cat that haunted her nightmares, but mess and all Asami never looked more beautiful to the waterbending avatar.

Before anyone could react Korra already had her arms around her girlfriend and had lifted her up into a bone crushing hug. "Spirits Asami I've miss you so much since you went out on that stupid hunt," Korra whispered into the crook of her lover's neck.

Luckily for all her fatigue Asami was used to the avatar's diamond creating hugs and had missed them in their period apart, "I missed you too Korra. It has not been an easy week let me tell you that," she said as Korra put her down. "You're lucky you're worth it," she continued when she saw Korra's eyes fill with guilt. Before Korra could say anything Asami pulled her into a kiss, one that you wouldn't normally engage in with you girlfriend in front of her parents and friends. But Asami didn't care, she had been wanting to kiss her since she left the village a week ago and nothing was going to stop her.

After a good minute of ravishing her girlfriend's mouth, Asami reluctantly broke the kiss and let Korra stumble away to catch her breath. First things first, she turned to Korra's father Chief Tonraq, she wasn't really sure how to go about this whole thing now that she had completed her hunt, but she was going to get his approval to marry his daughter one way or another. Ever the business woman she opted to be diplomatic about it before getting her shock glove to make him give them his blessing, that was option two if option one failed.

"Chief Tonraq, I present to you this prize I caught when I was out on my hunt. I hope you find it worthy and that it proves my worthiness to you so that you may grant me permission and your blessing to marry your daughter," she didn't feel like she needed anyone's permission other than Korra's to marry her, but she didn't want to crinkle any feathers now. Besides, one day this man would be her father-in-law, she didn't want to ruin that relationship before it had even started.

Tonraq stood up and looked at the dead snow panther leopard on his floor. It was a rather big beast compared to the other cat on the tundra, it was a magnificent prize. He moved in front of Asami and he placed his hand on her shoulder, "welcome to the family Asami," he said before engulfing her in a hug.

After that there was a lot of hugging and celebrating from everyone, not to mention whistling by Bolin and Mako when Asami put the betrothal necklace around Korra's neck for the first time as her fiancée. But Korra and Asami barely heard any of it as they were too busy paying attention to the love of their lives.


End file.
